SEARCHENGINES
December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update Rolling Out
Google has officially confirmed the launch of the second release of the Google helpful content update/system. It started lightly on December 5th but became noticeable, according to Google, on December 6th, which is why Google did not announce it until the 6th. This update adds new signals, most notably making it work for all languages globally – it is not just looking at English content anymore.
Google posted on December 6th that on December 5th, it “released the December 2022 helpful content update, which improves our classifier and works across content globally in all languages.” Google added, “the rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.”
As a reminder, the Google helpful content update looks to weed out content written for the purpose of ranking in search engines that do not help or inform people. Google said this update will “tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines.” The update will “help make sure that unoriginal, low-quality content doesn’t rank highly in Search,” Google added. So if you are writing content to drive search engine visibility and traffic, you might be hit by this type of update, and non-English sites are no longer safe from this update.
December 2022 Google Helpful Content Update Quick Facts
Here are the most important things that we know right now in short form:
- Name: Google helpful content update
- Launch Date: It began to rollout on December 5th but not so noticeable until December 6th
- Rollout: It will take about two weeks to fully roll out
- Targets: It looks at content that was created to rank well in search over help humans
- Search Only: This currently only impacts Google Search, not Google Discover or other Google surfaces. But Google may expand this to Discover and more in the future.
- Penalty: Google did not mention penalty but this update does seem to feel like a penalty for sites that will be hit by it
- Sitewide: This is a sitewide algorithm, so the whole site will be impacted by this update
- Not a core update: Many are going to say this is a core update, it is not.
- Global and all languages: This is no longer just for English-language content, it is now all languages and global.
- Impact: Google would not tell me what percentage of queries or searches were impacted by this update but Google did tell me it would be “meaningful.” Also, Google said this will be felt more for online-educational materials, entertainment, shopping, and tech-related content.
- Recover: If you were hit by this, then you will need to look at your content and see if you can do better with Google’s advice below
- Refreshes: Google updates the scores constantly here but there is a timeout period, and a validation period and it can take several months to recover from this update.
Updates to Helpful Content Update Document
Google made some small changes to its helpful content update page here are those edits:
- Replaced a lot of “update” references to “system” as we expected.
- Added the line “It works globally across all languages.”
- Remove the paragraph that it is only for English languages.
- Google also updated parts of the bottom of the document, it now reads “Periodically, we refine how the classifier detects unhelpful content. When we do this in a notable way, we share this as a “helpful content update” on our Google Search ranking updates page. After such an update finishes rolling out, and if the refined classifier sees that content has improved, then the unhelpful classification from our previous classifier may no longer apply.
One note here, Google is emphasizing how this system identifies unhelpful content with that last paragraph. Google’s Seach Liaison, Danny Sullivan, also said this on Mastodon when asked “When it says “improves our classifier” is that related to the updated classifier for NLP. If so should we expect to see the new categories being assigned to content?” He responded “The classifier tries to understand if content is unhelpful. We’ve improved from the original one when the helpful content system was first launched earlier this year.”
I am not sure I disagree with this statement based on that:
I still think Google should have called this “Unhelpful Content Demotion” instead https://t.co/XaxQtzbMZn
— Kazushi Nagayama🫡長山一石 (@KazushiNagayama) December 7, 2022
Here is the announcement tweets:
The Dec. 2022 helpful content update was released Dec. 5, starting to become more visible today & will take about two weeks to fully roll out. It improves our classifier & works across content globally in all languages. Our help page explains more: https://t.co/MS7hbcBTsp
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) December 6, 2022
Previous Helpful Content Update Impact
Last update was interesting, on September 9th we we thought we started to see the first widespread fluctuations from this helpful content update. Prior, only 20% of SEOs said they noticed any ranking changes related to the original helpful content update and I believe a good percentage of that 20% are confused and misattributing the changes they see to the wrong thing – i.e. it is not the helpful content update. The original Google helpful content update early on seemed pretty minor in terms of what SEOs and tools are picking up, despite what we all thought would happen. Even Danny Sullivan even said himself it was not a huge shakeup but it was big in terms of the direction Google is going with ranking content.
In short, the original one did not live up to the hype – will this updated version make up for it?
SEO Chatter
Here is some of the chatter I found that hints at some of the early impact on this update (or maybe the unconfirmed update from earlier?):
Quick update on the Dec HCU: Here’s the first big drop I have seen based on the December Helpful Content Update. Search visibility drops heavily starting yesterday. I’m now also seeing several other domains that dropped over the past two days… Will share more soon-ish. pic.twitter.com/md5FEls6u1
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 7, 2022
Big ol’ drop in a site with 2M+ pageviews per day. It started yesterday.
— Bot de revisión de titulares (@chupitodehelio) December 6, 2022
Yes, we noticed changes happening overnight. Interestingly the sites with the biggest changes (that have moved up to page 1) are sites that have the keywords in the domain…
— Mike (@nycmw2) December 6, 2022
Big increase on Sistrix. Not translating to traffic yet but December also tends to be a slower month traffic-wise so hard to tell for sure. pic.twitter.com/Wbk5zOqVez
— Ash Read (@Ashread_) December 6, 2022
I have 2 sites w all unique original well-written human driven content that look like they’re being affected by this rollout right before the end of the holiday season so this will affect them financially AND you’re getting it wrong. Thank you @Google for breaking your promise.
— Kristine S (@schachin) December 6, 2022
yes on one site across the board improvements
— Joe Hall (@joehall) December 6, 2022
@rustybrick I have also noticed in Semrush is showing me it seems like one small movement. pic.twitter.com/6oEI4hg30s
— Anuj thaker (@Anuj_Thaker03) December 7, 2022
Don’t know about other but this specific keyword was going up ⬆️. pic.twitter.com/KHiJvTYZoU
— Manzoor khan (@ManzoorRph) December 7, 2022
Can you tell me is this because of content? Since I’ve written high quality-people-first content?@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/rwAPB5gqZt
— networthypeople (@joelycirny) December 7, 2022
Yes, and it started about 3 days ago. They were testing this before they announced it
— Stefan (@Stefan01301380) December 6, 2022
It’s learning.
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) December 6, 2022
Semrush is showing this site exploded – it did not – at least not according to GA:
Semrush is showing me this, it seems like one big movement 🙂 pic.twitter.com/r3lIiLTWhE
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 7, 2022
I mean, I am up but this much? I doubt it…
And some chatter from Black Hat World & WebmasterWorld:
One of my sites got hit in the spam update. Today it’s breaking the ceiling.
I was starting to wonder when all my cache dates were no older than 7 days. That’s never happened before. But the ranks I see now were definitely taking shape days ago.
I think changes began Nov 30th according to site log activity, crawling level, rank movement, etc.
Google Tracking Tools
Here is what the automated tracking tools are showing:
I believe it is still early, but the impact, thus far, in the past 24-48 hours, was not yet massive. I will keep an eye on the changes, volatility, and chatter and keep you posted.
Forum discussion at Twitter, Black Hat World & WebmasterWorld.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 13, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google explains the differences between algorithm updates, data refreshes and more – again. Google Search Console doesn’t keep data for de-indexed URLs. Google lifted some of the manual actions over the site reputation abuse policy. Google said the video needs to be super obvious on the page for it to be a video page. Google Ads updated its disclosure policy for event ticket pages. Google I/O is tomorrow – I decided not to attend in person, it is just easier to cover at my desk.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Again On Difference Between Algorithm Updates & Data Refreshes
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, posted on X explaining the differences between algorithm updates, like core updates, and then data refreshes, the data that goes into those ranking systems. This is actually something Matt Cutts, former Googler, did back in 2006, on his blog and now Danny Sullivan did a short version of it on X. -
Google Lifts Some Site Reputation Abuse Policy Penalties
About a week ago, we reported that Google began enforcing its new site reputation abuse policy by issuing manual actions and ranking penalties for those sites that violated those policies. Google seems to be now lifting some of those manual actions where the sites took the necessary action and no longer are violating the policy. -
Google Search Console Doesn’t Keep Data For Most De-Indexed Pages
Gary Illyes from Google said on LinkedIn that Google Search Console doesn’t “keep (almost) any data for un/de-indexed.” -
Google: Video Pages Need To Be Super-Obvious Video Play Pages
In April 2023 and December 2023 Google changed how it classifies what it would consider video pages. In short, the video on the page needs to be the main piece of content for Google to show it a video thumbnail in the search results and to show it in the videos tab in Google Search. -
Google Ads Updates Disclosure Policy For Event Ticket Sale
Google Ads will be modifying its disclosure policy for event ticket sale. The update will say that the “disclosures should be easily visible and clearly explained in the top 20% (above the fold) of any destination when reached via an ad.” -
Google Gemini Swag: Bag, T-Shirt, Jacket & More
Google has given some folks some new swag for its Gemini AI features, formerly known as Bard. Here are some photos of the Gemini bags, t-shirts and jackets.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Missing Google I/O – just so much easier covering it from my desk than at the event. Hope all the SEOs going have a blast!, Barry Schwartz on X
- I caught a Google test. Check out the posts on this listing; they’re FB posts, not GBP posts. Can’t see it again. Has anyone seen this?, Amy Mattison Toman on X
- Noticed a few changes on Google’s local panel: Reviews now appear in a block card format with filter options. Both image/video and text reviews are displayed in this new format directly on the local panel, visible at the right, Shameem Adhikarath on X
- I work for the Google Search teams. Not the PR team. Also, I’ll give you a little background here. Maybe you’ll find it helpful, maybe not., Google SearchLiaison on X
- not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me. monday 10am PT., Sam Altman on X
- a page cannot both have a noindex robots meta tag and redirect. It can only be one or the other. – a page blocked by robots.txt will not be crawled, so Googleb, John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Big Tech regulatory crackdown spreads to Asia and Australia, Financial Times (Sub)
- Google layoffs in SF impact dozens, KRON4
- Sam Altman shoots down reports of search engine launch ahead of Google I/O, The Verge
- Apple Closes in on Deal With OpenAI to Put ChatGPT on iPhone, Bloomberg
- All About Googleplex, Google’s Main HQ: Size, Cost; Other Offices, Business Insider
- An Ex-Google Employee Shares Layoff Indicators, Red Flags, Business Insider
- Microsoft to invest 4 billion euros in France, Reuters
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Mikhail Parakhin Confirms He Is No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft.
We knew Mikhail Parakhin was planning to work on something new but now Mikhail Parakhin confirmed that he is no longer working on Copilot.
He said on X, “Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.”
I did follow up and asked if “onto new things” means new things within Microsoft or new things at a new company but I did not hear back on that. His LinkedIn profile still shows he is at Microsoft.
Here are those posts:
I know, those were the best 🙂
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
Not working on Copilot anymore, onto new things.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) May 9, 2024
I am super interested in what Mikhail is working on now and I suspect he will tell us soon.
I deeply miss his transparent and frequent posts about what Microsoft is working on with Copilot and Bing Search…
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: May 10, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google says site reputation abuse is not about links, it is about content. Google Local Service Ads ranking removed proximity as a ranking signal. Google Shopping may soon tell searchers how many shoppers purchased at your e-commerce site. Google Local panels now can show the owner of the business. Mikhail Parakhin from Microsoft confirmed he is no longer working on Copilot. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google: Site Reputation Abuse Isn’t About Linking
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, made it crystal clear that the site reputation abuse policy has zero to do with linking. This means that who you link to and/or who links to you has no impact on this new policy that Google began enforcing with manual actions earlier this week. -
Google May Show How Many Shoppers Purchased On Your E-Commerce Site
Google has sent some Google Merchant Center e-commerce site managers notifications that a new annotation may begin to show up in the search results next to their site’s listing that shows how many searchers purchased on your site. It may read, “1K shopped here recently.” -
Google: Proximity Not A Relevancy Factor For Local Service Ads
Google has updated its Local Services Ads help document on ad rankings to remove the line around “proximity to potential customers’ locations” is a ranking factor for those ads. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said the document was updated but there was no recent or “sudden change to ranking considerations” to LSA rankings or positions. -
Google Local Panel With Owner Attribute
Google can show the owner of the business in the local panels in the Google search results. I suspect this is not new but I don’t believe I’ve seen this before, where Google will add an “owner” attribute to the local panel. -
Mikhail Parakhin No Longer Working On Copilot At Microsoft
Mikhail Parakhin, the former head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising at Microsoft, confirmed he is no longer working on the Copilot project. He stepped down as the head of Bing Search and Microsoft Advertising weeks ago after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman as the CEO of AI at Microsoft. -
Google Ads Cyclone Money Machine
I found this photo funny. It is one of those cyclone money machines that money flies around in, and a person inside is supposed to try to grab as much money as possible. Well, there is a Google Ads logo on this one. Oh, the irony of this photo… -
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Ranking Volatility, Site Reputation Abuse Enforcement, Pichai On Search Quality, HCU Recovery & More
Google may have had two search ranking algorithm updates, one around May 9th and one around May 3rd. Google began its site reputation abuse policy enforcement this week with manual actions, and it is not about linking. Google said sites may recover from the helpful content update. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, responded…
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
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